BIODIESEL 4

Today's Atlanta Journal and Constitution has a piece about the groundbreaking ceremony this past Tuesday for Alterra Bioenergy's biodiesel factory in Plains, Georgia. The new factory will turn soybean oil into 30 million gallons of biodiesel fuel every year, lessening this country's dependence on petroleum from overseas and also lessening emission of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Former president Jimmy Carter played a major role in the company's choice of Plains as a location to build their new factory.

The AJC piece actually focuses on Carter. According to Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress, Carter was a man ahead of his time in terms of funding and public advocacy for alternative fuels technology. Also quoted at length is Jay Hakes, a historian who is writing a book on the energy policies of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Carter. An opposite point of view is articulated by John Felmy, the American Petroleum Institute's chief economist, who labels the tax on oil company profits spearheaded by Carter as "an abuse of power."